Poured Over

“I'm one of those writers that … I think I know the story I want to write when I'm going in with a novel … but by the time I get into the middle of it, it's like I've discovered a totally different story.” Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s A Spell of Good Things explores class, love, and family ties with interwoven narratives of struggle, heartbreak and hope in Nigeria. She joins us to talk about her cast of unforgettable characters, how misogyny permeates life and literature, what surprised her while writing this novel, her literary influences and more with Poured Over host, Miwa Messer. Listen after the episode for a TBR Topoff from Marc and Jamie.     Featured Books (Episode):  A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ  Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ  Everything Good Will Come by Sefi Atta  Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout  Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri  What It Means when a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah  Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer  Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré  Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham     Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays here and on your favorite podcast app.     

“It's a literary, feminist, boarding school murder mystery — everyone's favorite genre.”  I Have Some Questions for You is the thrilling and inventive new novel from Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Part murder mystery, part timely take on issues that readers will connect with, this novel will keep you intrigued from cover to cover. Makkai joins us to talk about unreliable narrators, living on a boarding school campus, what keeps a reader turning the pages and more with host Miwa Messer. Listen after the episode for a TBR Topoff from Marc and Jamie.     Featured Books (Episode):  I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai  The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai   The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin  Trust by Hernan Diaz  The Keep by Jennifer Egan  The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka  The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka   Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  Vladimir by Julia May Jonas   Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

“No one in this cast believes that they have a home — they have houses, but they don't have homes. They were born into this country, they were born into these places, but they don't feel like their homes.” Within the rich setting of 1940s Trinidad, Kevin Jared Hosein’s sweeping novel Hungry Ghosts brings readers into the world of two families connected by class, power and mystery. A distinctive new voice in Caribbean literature, Hosein has crafted a story that is gothic, propulsive and will resonate with readers from the first page. He speaks with us on learning the true history of Trinidad firsthand, how the title came to be, his literary influences and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Listen after the episode for a TBR Topoff from Marc and Jamie.    Featured Books (Episode):  Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein  Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul  A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul  No Pain Like This Body by Harold Sonny Ladoo  The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki  The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin  Silent Spring by Rachel Carson  Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell   Sula by Toni Morrison     Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays here and on your favorite podcast app.    

“I wouldn't have written the book if I were not hopeful. I mean, the act of writing this book was a prayer for our country — it's making the case that there's another way of looking more deeply under the surface of our country, a way of seeing it that can enlighten us…”    From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson, Caste combines history, social commentary and individual narratives into a work that is wholly original, stunningly written and impressively researched. Wilkerson joins us to talk about arriving at the concept of caste in America, The Warmth of Other Suns, the personal stories that connect readers to Caste, her hope for the future and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. Stick around after the interview for TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie.    Featured Books (Episode):   Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson  The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson  Caste (Adapted for Young Adults) by Isabel Wilkerson    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):    Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert  Let’s Talk About Hard Things by Anna Sale    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays.

“Maureen’s journey is about going to the dark — and when you go right into the dark, you then find the light and the kind of renewal — and of all of them, this book felt to me a book about rebirth, which felt the right place to end.” Following The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Rachel Joyce’s Maureen completes her series of novels revolving around a cast of characters that you can’t help but connect with. Whether you’ve read them all or are ready to meet Maureen for the first time, you’ll find something to love. Joyce talks with us about the evolution of the world of her incredibly popular series, her writing process, the authors who have shaped her, what she’s working on next and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. We end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie.    Featured Books (Episode):  Maureen by Rachel Joyce  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce  The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce  Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman  The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick    This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes of Poured Over land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and wherever you listen to podcasts. 

“For us, horror stories are a long, dark, scary tunnel. You hear sounds you don't want to hear; you see things that are going to stick in your head. But if you keep putting one foot after the other, that speck of light at the end is going to grow a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and one day you step out into daylight.”   Stephen Graham Jones’ second installment in the Indian Lake Trilogy, Don’t Fear the Reaper, is a big-hearted, blood-soaked romp that rivals the very best slasher films. Jones joins us to talk about creating his fierce and funny characters, the importance of setting, Native American authors in horror, his favorite scary movies and frightening books and more with Poured Over guest host, Jenna Seery.    Featured Books (Episode):  Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones  My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones  The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones  The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle  The Shining by Stephen King  Books of Blood by Clive Barker  Experimental Film by Gemma Files  Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven  A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay  My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix  Road of Bones by Christopher Golden  Maeve Fly by CJ Leede    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  Carrie by Stephen King   Bad Cree by Jessica Johns    This episode of Poured Over was produced and hosted by Jenna Seery and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes of Poured Over land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and wherever you listen to podcasts.   

Jessica George, author of the debut novel Maame, discusses the protagonist's relatable journey in a coming-of-age story exploring sadness, loss, laughter, growth, and love. She shares insights on finding her character's voice, processing grief, and hints at her next projects in a sentimental and laughter-filled conversation with host Miwa Messer.

These two novels explore the gulf between expectation and reality, ambition and opportunity, and what happens when life veers off from your carefully planned path. Kashana Cauley and Matthew Salesses each give us indelible casts of characters to follow as they face career upheaval, challenges to their identities and find new love in unexpected ways. Listen to this Double Shot episode with both authors in conversation separately with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie.    Matthew Salesses combines professional basketball, K-dramas, and young love in his novel The Sense of Wonder. Salesses joins us to talk about the effect of Jeremy Lin, the structure of a novel vs. a K-drama, his teaching career and what he’s reading now.     In Kashana Cauley’s The Survivalists, a young Black lawyer meets a man who thoroughly changes her life through love, coffee and doomsday prepping. Cauley talks with us about how she developed her characters, social class and real estate in New York City, the authors who influenced her and more.     Featured Books (Episode):  The Sense of Wonder by Matthew Salesses  The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley  Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston  No-No Boy by John Okada  American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang  Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart     Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu   The Sellout by Paul Beatty    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays.  

“I love finishing reading a book and thinking, I feel privileged to have read that, I feel dignified. I feel like that book sort of thought of me as sacred… I want to write the kind of books that I most love to read.”  From Paul Harding, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tinkers, comes This Other Eden — an intricate novel inspired by the fascinating true story of Malaga, an island in Maine that held one of the first integrated communities after the Civil War. Harding joins us to talk about his vibrant cast of characters, studying with Marilynne Robinson, the authors who have influenced him and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie.   Featured Books (Episode):  This Other Eden by Paul Harding  Tinkers by Paul Harding  Enon by Paul Harding  The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett  Moby Dick by Herman Melville  The Tempest by William Shakespeare    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):  Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn  Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).  

“At any given time, there's a choir of ideas and nagging voices in my head — chatter that I had to contend with I guess — in the end it ends up with this model of working and living in which everything is happening simultaneously.”   Aleksandar Hemon, author of National Book Award Finalist The Lazarus Project, has no shortage of accomplishments, including screenwriting credits on Sense8 and The Matrix: Revolutions. He’s back with The World and All That it Holds, an epic love story spanning decades, countries, and political boundaries. Hemon joins us to talk about his multitudinous (and simultaneous) projects, his music career as Cielo Hemon, being a romantic (or not) and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie.   Featured Books:  The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon  The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):   The Passion by Jeanette Winterson  This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone    Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays with occasional Saturdays.